Oral Defence as an Assessment Tool

"If you can't say it, you don't know it" ~ Socrates

In Defense of Oral Defense Every year it amazes me that after 10 years of public or private education, students seem to think that the idea of a quiz or test is to write their name at the top, guess their way through the multiple choice section, and dream up plausible sounding statements on the short answer section. At best students often see this as an encounter in which they are to figure out what I wanted to see. At worst, they try to game the system with ever more ingenious ways of cheating. It seems that the purpose was to learn something never entered their minds. As for the truly conscientious students, they never read my comments on their paper. They rarely see their mistakes as a means to improve their learning. Socrates knew it 26 centuries ago; ideas in the mind are best expressed by the spoken word. His maxim, “If you can’t say it, you don’t know it” is as true today as it was in the Athenian agora. Now oral defense, a face to face dialogue with each of my students, that takes place almost every day, is my primary means of determining how well my students learn. Now an error in understanding can be a tool for learning rather than the source of a bad grade on a piece of paper. Carefully crafted follow up questions can lead a student to accessing what they know and connecting it to past or future learning. “Tell me about this topic.” “Can you phrase that another way?” “How is this like an earlier theme we explored?” “Define that for me please.” “Continue with that thought, you’re almost there.” “Do you see a connection with this objective and the other objectives?” “Does this remind you of an experience in your own life?” “How are these ideas the same and how are they different?” These are the sorts of questions I ask students, one on one, every day. A student must explain to me what they’ve learned in order to receive the points for the assignment. Not doing the assignment isn’t an option; I’ll just keep coming back asking questions! Now I match the questions to the student’s ability, I can redirect them during the learning, not after; I can stretch a student to think about the ideas more deeply. This individual assessment allows me to facilitate individual growth rather than testing a general criteria that may fit no one in the room. In short, there is no hiding, everyone learns. And the last time I checked, that is the purpose of school. So oral defense takes the “gotcha” out of school; far less stress is involved when students focus on their own learning rather than performance on quiz or test. Anxiety is reduced when a student is allowed to express their learning in their own terms. Yes, there are quizzes and tests, and there is certainly a place for written expression, but the majority of my assessments are oral defense.

Wyatt Bingham-All Rights Reserved "If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl."